Analysis Versus Insight

The Negative And The Positive Dimensions Of The Via Negativa: A Comparative Study Of The Greek Neoplatonic Tradition And The Indian Buddhist Wisdom Tradition

I. Introduction

	In this chapter/paper I shall investigate the negative and positive dimensions of the via negativa and explore the way these two spheres interact and closely cooperate.

1. What Is Negative Theology?

	In trying to understand a religious philosophy that utilizes an emphasis on the via negativa a series of interesting questions arise that we may well wish to ask ourselves, for example, can anything positive come out of such an exercise or is such a negative theological pursuit merely a negativistic and pointless exercise leading us in the direction, at best, of an agnosticism or, at worst, an outright nihilism? Then if we feel that this type of philosophic practice has some semblance of merit we might then be drawn to ask ourselves what is negative theology or the same question subjected to a more penetrating scrutiny why negative theology, or, what motivates the negative theologian?
	Basically negative theology is the use of negative means to indirectly describe or point to a religious dimension beyond natural or conventional forms of perception and intellection.
	Negative theology is the use of the via negative in a religious philosophy and is the adoption of negative or contradictory means for indirectly describing or indicating the existence and nature of the numinous. In essence, as a critique, it is parasitic upon the presence of positive theological terminology which it qualifies through various forms of negation or contradiction. E.g. the sentence God is good is a positive theological utterance. A negative theological approach might qualify this traditional definition by saying that God is not good not in an attempt to say that God is wicked, or evil, but to circumscribe the extent to which moral epithets can be applied to the concept and/or reality of the divine. Negation is neither used nihilistically nor irreligiously, however, the shock of denying traditional religious ground often places the redefinition in need of further lengthy qualification lest the practitioner of this method be thought lacking the correct religious sentiment or motivation. It could be argued that each of these traditions in its use of the via negativa abnormalizes elements of normal positive theological discourse, to utilize a concept formulated by Richard Rorty, in order to create or expand religious insight.

2. Equation Of Negative Theology With The Use Of The Via Negativa.

	Let me at this point in time, for convenience sake, equate the use of the via negativa with negative theology. Buddhist Philosophy does not directly deal with questions of theology per se and with this in mind I would like to define negative theology with a religiously motivated philosophical use of the via negativa in philosophically and religiously dealing with the concept of the numinous, the Absolute or reality, etc. either theoretically and/or practically. Such neutrality, hopefully, will help us circumnavigate the controversy on the subject of a theological dimension to some forms of Buddhist Philosophy although I would like to point out here that an increased centralization of interest in the via negativa appears to be accompanied by an increased interest in devotional forms of religious expression. Later in this paper I will offer some reasons for the coinciding existence of these two types of phenomena.

3. Why Negative Theology?

	The question why negative theology is a difficult one to quickly answer and to offer a simple solution may well cause more misunderstanding to arise than understanding. Basically, with the advent of a philosophical scepticism arising from an awareness of the continually controversial nature of the historical-philosophical process, new forms of philosophical investigation arose in the criticism of such a phenomenon (of the controversial and unproductive nature of this philosophical relativism). With the advent of a centralization and systematization of interest in the development of a religious concept of the absolute or an Absolute, via the use of the via negativa, a philosophy of sameness was articulated in order to overcome the divisions, both personal and social, that arose for and were induced in the individual as a consequence of such divisive polarizations of opinion. In order to overcome the sense of alienation that arose for the individual from such a controversial environment a new form of philosophy, I would contend, developed in order to heal such seemingly unresolvable dichotomous thought. In this pursuit philosophy was given the task of analyzing itself and through such reflection being made to restore its good name and thereby made to extricate itself from the controversial mud of an otherwise interminably unproductive historical process of philosophical-religious debate. In essence an understanding of the universe was to be refashioned on or around the sense of the absolute as came to be articulated in this type of religious philosophy. The idea of the absolute being seen as that which is the ground for the presentation of reality as we come to know it in relative conventional terms of reference, as that which is or just is above and beyond all processes of intellection, as that which is a priori to appearances, that which integrates this diverse phenomenal multiplicity and allows us to refer to a world or, perhaps more correctly, the world.

4. Background To The Development Of A Philosophy Of The Absolute.

	It is my contention that at the start of the present era a new form of philosophy comes to the fore with an emphasis on the sense of the absolute. Philosophy is given a new ontological twist with its reduction to a form of absolutism that transcends epistemological categories of sense perception, intellectual conceptualization, etc. A critical interest in the phenomenology of experiential reality opened the door to an understanding of the absolute whereby reality is appreciated as the ground for the presentation and experience of natural phenomena and as such is that which is both immanent and transcendent to such conventional reality. 
	A study of texts at the forefront of this philosophic revolution reveal a marked increase in the use of negative forms of expression. Criticism is primarily directed through a systematic negational treatment of traditional positive theological terminology. In the study of Greek Neoplatonic texts we see the increased incidence of the negational alpha privative and in a corresponding fashion in the Indian Buddhist Wisdom Tradition there is an equally increased incidence of the prefix a indicating some form or other of negation. Negation is not simple, moreover, both traditions affirm that they have no interest in a nihilistic form of philosophy, on the contrary, that philosophy has a crucial role to play in our coming to an understanding of the real nature of the world, i.e. coming to an appreciation of its absoluteness or absolutivity as opposed to the relativity of its phenomenal presentation. Accompanying this complex usage of negational treatment is a tendency for lengthy qualification in order to rectify any extreme non-positive negativity that might be read into these texts. Certainly such textual reformation is not intended to be reformational and iconoclastic in a violent revolutionary sense but critically re-evaluative of positive terminology in the light of the absolute as determined philosophically. In this regard both traditions appear to be isomorphic in basic structure, the manner in which that structure functions and the intentions that motivate that structuralization.

5. Concept of Structural and Functional Isomorphism.

	A critical comparison between any two philosophical systems is often difficult to conduct and impossible if no common ground can be found between them. It is my claim that these two traditions more or less simultaneously developed and placed an increasing emphasis on the sense of the absolute with a consequent restructuralization of their respective philosophies. Further more, such restructural-ization also promoted a general isomorphism in the function of those systematized philosophical expressions, i.e. the manner in which these traditions functioned in theoretical and dogmatic terms of reference, practical and experiential terms of reference.
	By isomorphism is meant those common features that can be found present in the comparative analysis of two or more philosophical traditions, i.e. in our mental transition from one philosophical or religious system to another some common ground is found preserved after such a transference of our attention.

6. Commentaries and Living Tradition.

	Without some form of contextualism we have little chance of understanding and making sense of any literary text let alone a tradition in itself. In this regard we are fortunate to have in both traditions a well developed commentorial strand where key texts are minutely examined and implicit understandings spelt out. Although both traditions no longer have living exponents we are fortunate to have preserved in Tibet a living continuation of the philosophical expression of the Wisdom Tradition, namely the Madhyamaka, which, being immersed in the same type of problematic, can let us ask those questions which puzzle us providing us in the process, as it were, with a living commentary to the same. Moreover, I would claim, that as both traditions are considerably isomorphic in structure, function and overall motivation, each in its comparison with the other is also inclined to act as a commentary upon the other often spelling out what is left implicit in one tradition through the historical influences and surface vagaries of emphasis and style that will contrast them.
	In seeking to understand why these two traditions appear to have simultaneously developed an absolute style of philosophic discourse we must recognize that we enter controversial territory. As to whether there is a relationship between these two spheres of influence in this regard and a possible precedence of one over the other we must tread very carefully as a consideration of these matters is not easy nor clear cut. For a start I believe the preconditions for this type of philosophical development were already in place in both traditions at approximately the same time. Further I believe a philosophic and religious interaction to be not only possible but also most probable. However I feel some innovative precedence in the final analysis might be given to the Eastern world witness for example the interest of Plotinus and other philosophers in the cultures of Persia and India and the general trend for oriental beliefs to be disseminated into and through the Roman world. However no interaction can be one way nor can an intellectual relationship take place without an adequate degree of common ground. As these two spheres of influence saw an intensification of trade in this same period of time I see no reason why intellectual ideas could not flow between them as well perhaps helping the other to catalyze their own thought and to accelerate this trend towards religious absolutism.
	It could be noted at this point that it was just before the start of the present era by a few decades that a quicker route to India from Europe via the Red Sea and directly across the Indian Ocean was pioneered with the discovery of the sixth monthly reversal of the monsoon Trade Winds. This allowed passage to India and back, often in the form of large convoys of over one hundred vessels or so, to be cut from a period of three years to just one. In the process a very considerable quantity of silver flowed eastward from the Roman Empire and no doubt some of the profit of this increase in trade patronized the development and maintenance of large religious institutions, the type of environment I believe necessary for the development and articulation of this type of complex philosophy.

II. A Series of Clues Into The Nature Of The Via Negativa.

	In trying to understand the positive and negative dimensions of the negative theological use of the via negativa I believe we can follow a series of clues that will help lead us to redefine what these two aspect correctly entail. 
	Rather than putting down on the table my entire hand  in this matter and thereby revealing all my cards at one go let me demonstrate one card at a time and through such sequential analysis establish an insight into the existence and the nature of the relationship between these dimensions of the positive and the negative. To do this I believe a series of clues confront us that not only confirm the existence of both of these two aspects but more importantly show us how these two spheres are intimately related to each other and establish the very raison d'etre for the presence of the via negativa.

1. That the use of the word Via is Indicative of Process.

	We have a first clue in the description and title of this type of philosophy. That the use of the word via (path) in the expression via negativa is indicative of passage, movement or process. Without the concept of a via negativa held in contrast a via positiva could not make itself understood in the way it comes to be differentially appreciated. The idea of both path and philosophy as process can be found in both traditions....
	In the Neoplatonic Tradition as articulated by Plotinus we find that although the Absolute transcends all sense of movement our recognition of the same is in the form of a progress, something we come to or something we are led to....

We come to this learning by analogies, by abstractions, by our understanding of its subsequents, of all that is derived from the Good, by upward steps towards it. Purification has The Good for goal,....

	In the Wisdom Tradition we can note in comparison that the Bodhisattva goes forth into perfect wisdom....

. ....the perfection of wisdom is bought about as something that has come forth from the cognition of all-knowing. That is why one should course, stand, progress, and make efforts in this perfection of wisdom.

2. That The Positive Dimension Is Essentially Experiential.

	A second clue follow from the first, namely, that the element of a path and its implication of process and progress suggests the fact that the nature of the positive dimension is an experiential one. Some of the most poetic and passionate sections of the Enneads are vivid declarations of this fact that for Plotinus the essential nature of reality can be experienced as an experience in its own right....

....suddenly, swept beyond it all by the very crest of the wave of Intellect surging beneath, he is lifted and sees, never knowing how; the vision floods the eyes with light, but it is not a light showing some other object, the light is itself the vision.

	In the Wisdom Tradition with its claim that the experiential reality of all-knowledge (sarva-jnata) is obtainable we can note the same type of isomorphic correspondence....

For it is in this perfection of wisdom that one should search for all-knowledge...., just so the great jewel of the Tathagatas should be searched for through the great ocean of the perfection of wisdom.

	When we read Buddhist texts of a more polemical nature, e.g. those debates between fellow Buddhists or those conducted with other Non-Buddhist Traditions, we often miss the point of these exercises if we just see them as exercises in philosophical argument. Often key concepts are read only in the theoretical light of dogma or debate when their more central significance would be found in a more experiential arena. The concept of emptiness (sunya) is a case in point. Read in the context of a philosophical debate where the writer is supplying arguments for their exposition, and as well replying to a number of possible counter-arguments that could be made against the former, non-theoretical aspects are easily overlooked. This oversight is quite understandable especially if our orientation in this matter is textually based without an interaction with the tradition itself that creates and uses those texts. It can come as a surprise therefore when we find that emptiness, e.g. is to be realized and experienced and not merely thought about intellectually, indeed, we are told that our perception in this matter can or should be direct.
	In a similar manner the term perfection of wisdom or perfect wisdom (prajnaparamita) is to be experientially treated and not merely entertained conceptually....

In such ways should a Bodhisattva approach perfect wisdom. If the Bodhisattva approaches perfect wisdom in this way, apperceives it, enters into it, understands it, reflects upon it, examines, investigates, and develops it,- with acts of mind that have abandoned all deception ....,- then it will not be hard for him to gain the full perfection of all virtues, of the buddha-field and of the supreme dharmas of a Buddha.

3. That The Negative Dimension Is Essentially Analytical.

	Shifting our examination to the negative orientated aspect of our research should bring our attention to the fact, as a third clue, that the essentially negative nature or aspect of the via negativa is analytical in a specially defined sense. Such analysis must not be confused with a logical type of analysis nor an analytical type of analysis as promoted by one dominant stream of Modern Western Philosophy. What is correctly involved is an exhaustive inspection and reflection from a number of positions into the object of our examination which can either be the essential nature of reality considered in part or in whole or the focusing of our attention around some particular facet of natural experience. It would appear that we are meant to start with the latter and move eventually to a consideration of the former based on a critical accumulation of previously conducted analysis. This type of circumspection, to use a Heideggarian term, is I believe phenomenologically orientated and motivated with the implicit intention of moving beyond a natural horizon to a more fundamental essential or phenomenological appreciation and thereby induce some form of insightful knowledge and through time, through further ongoing analysis, to also induce a reinforcement of the conviction for the correctness and appropriateness of the same. It would seem that this type of process taken to its full term is claimed to pass beyond the province of mere philosophy to come before a realm of verities, direct intuitions into the constitution of reality along with all the religious consequences claimed for such privileged but worked for appreciation or insight. Along with such an attitude follows a heavy commitment to and centralized dependence upon philosophy, especially in its initial and middle stages. The type of philosopher who promotes this type of position would, I believe, be a philosopher of sameness. Such a person if questioned as to the role philosophy might or should possess would quickly claim a primary religious role for it that would almost verge on its acceptance and exercise as a necessary prerequisite for religious salvation. For this type of person the practice of philosophy is no mere act of artful sophistry neither is it some type of polemical debate merely set up as a competitive sport or as a device to win and ensure religious patronage and converts. It becomes for these people the very blood for the living obtainment of religious insight and salvation. As a form of meditation it opens the door to religious faith through an affective strengthening of conviction. Through such analysis, it is claimed, the door is cognitively opened for a direct-like appreciation of reality in its essential nature and that this appreciation has religious consequences that flow beyond the influence of the merely philosophical.
	In Buddhist Mahayanic studies in the West this aspect of analysis (vicara) is not often fully appreciated, even when this element is noted the full understanding and acceptance of the implications entailed are just not recognized. In an interesting paper by Petter Fenner on this subject he notes the wide diversity of opinions held by scholars in the degree of their acceptance or rejection of a strong relationship between philosophically conducted analysis and its consequentially related creation of intuitive insight into the phenomenal constitution of conventional or relative reality.  Even with respect to the Madhyamaka, the philosophical expression, institutionalization and development of the Perfection of Wisdom Tradition, and more specifically with respect to the branch of the Prasangika, Western opinion is divided over how strong the relationship exists between analysis and insight. A marked misunderstanding of the nature of this analysis may account for this anomaly in scholarship, however, a careful reading of commentaries and listening to exponents of this type of tradition as it has continued in Tibet and China would resolve much of this area under dispute in favour of a strong relationship.
	Here in the West it seems we have forgotten that philosophy once claimed for itself a role as that science which dispenses and deals with the verification of judgment,  the refinement of knowledge and, most importantly, as a broker of wisdom. That a philosophic or religious tradition might think this way, rightly or wrongly, is a blind spot for us today. Our cultural relativism, as a two edged sword, may give us with one hand the certainty of science it also gives us with the other a thorough scepticism that it seems to me seeps into the very psychic core of our being and the way we see the world and the way we come to see others seeing within it. Acceptance that for some philosophers philosophy is a search for true wisdom allows us to understand those traditions that endeavour to exercise such a position. The mere appreciation of this point allows us to understand the motivation that drives this type of philosophy and I would venture that, more often than not, such a style is more in keeping with a philosophy of sameness. I will develop this point later in this chapter/paper.

4. The Systematic Application Intended For Such Analysis.

	Another clue presents itself when we recognize and investigate the systematic way this type of analysis is meant to be exercised. All facets of the phenomenal word are meant to be investigated. All seemingly fundamental categories of thought are to be presented for analysis. With patient ongoing persistence a phenomenalistic type of analysis is to be applied to the apparent relativity of reality as we come to know it. With a ruthless persistence in our labours we will come, we are told, through the collective results of our endeavours to a position of understanding the essential nature of reality, in essence to an appreciation of the absolute. Not easy is such a pursuit but never the less, both traditions claim, one that is still obtainable.
	Such investigations seem to have much in common with the way analytical psychiatry is observed by the lay person to operate. If our analysis is conducted thoroughly enough then there will come a point when we will be in a position to recognize just what is at fault in our human condition. However in this religiously motivated analysis what is at stake is insight and the salvation that naturally flows from it. When we recognize our ignorance in certain matters then we cease to be ignorant of just such a matter.
	In coming to understand the systematic application of this type of analysis I feel the following psychological-gestalt model might help us come to better appreciate the mechanics of this analytical process. Through the repetition of analysis our religious-philosophical framework becomes progressively reconstituted and restructured altering the way we come to perceive the natural world and creating a sense of insight in the process. 
	In the first place this type of analysis is centrally invested with the utilization of the via negativa.
Items of a positive theology, a traditional field of religious terminology, are treated to various forms of negation that parasitically feed off but never exhaust their positive host. Negation, contradiction or paradox is never realized in a straight forward nor fully completed manner and some form of dialectical-like truce is called wherein both parties can come to some form of ongoing dialectical alliance. What is to be negated is negated but that which is negated is never fully negated so that which is subject to negation can continue to be subjected to such treatment. This way the negative theologian can have their cake and eat it so to speak. Negation appears to both kill some aspect of the positive concept but restore a new meaning and life to it as well. No longer are such items, it seems, made to represent some feature of a reputed religious reality statically waiting for our recognition, rather such realities are invested with a new role, namely, that of divine sign posts pointing towards the mysterious reality of the Absolute, beckoning us to extend and realize our gaze in this new direction. Here the emphasis is on a process theology with an accompanying cosmology that equally reflects, explicitly or implicitly, the emanation of religious reality and salvation from a sense of the Absolute. In Plotinus this feature need not be pointed out. In the Buddhist Wisdom Tradition this facet is more implicit but can for all that be indicated. With the further development of the Mahayana such a cosmological-salvic map of the world becomes more fully explicated.
	Religious item by religious item a negative theological analysis is applied breaking up the rigidity of a positive theology. Collectively a new religious frame of reference is fashioned. It is my belief that when a certain degree of applied analysis has been conducted this reconstructed psychic background will reach a critical point beyond which a new way of seeing the world will naturally and relatively effortlessly follow. Through the colouring of the world in a new way a moment is reached when the objects of our scrutiny become naturally seen in such a new light. The suddenness of such a transition gives itself the appearance of insightfulness, such experiences further reinvesting and strengthening that new way of seeing the world. The systematic approach refashions the way we see the world, indeed the way the world is to be for us.
	This use of the systematic approach is I believe symptomatic of the style of philosophy I have denoted as a philosophy of sameness. Such a philosophy is concerned with the particular type of critical self-reflective analysis I have just described. Its logic is basically circumspective and dialectical involving and invoking the synthesis of a number of frames of reference and never relying on a superficial logical frame of reference that merely attends to the way things present themselves, accepting at face value the way facts and values are uncritically lodged within it. Such a style in philosophy seeks to point out and encounter some sort of absolute that is immanent and transcendent to phenomenal reality. Such an absolute sought in those terms of reference can not be something under which the empirical categories of the relative world can be made to apply. Such an empirical-like application transgresses the very limits of such categories and in Kantian-like language we could say that it would be a transcendental mistake to employ these categories in a non-empirical mode. Therefore the sense of the absolute under these conditions can never be referred to in temporal, spatial, substantial, mental terms of reference, etc. (except metaphorically). We would be mistaken therefore to hold that the sense of the absolute can be empirically described except through some form of metaphorical allusion.

5. The Instantiation Of Insight.

	In contrast to a philosophy of sameness we have a philosophy of difference a style of philosophy that centers itself on the distance between distinctions and not so much their accommodation. In perceiving this contrast we are offered indirectly another clue. The development of insight, it would appear, cannot merely issue forth from analysis alone but must also be couple to a meditationally-orientated state of calmness, tranquility, etc. 
	Both philosophic positions are, however, correctly a matter of preference, almost a matter of personal taste for each position could not be exercised purely in its own right. It is interesting to note in this regard that with distinction there is a potential difference and hence the possibility for desire, movement, change, restlessness, involvement, anguish and agitation. On the other hand in a philosophy of sameness there is an emphasis on peacefulness, calmness, reflective withdrawal, absorbed detachment, resignation, etc. In the meditative application of this phenomenological style of analysis in both traditions there is a call for calmness, a desire to transcend the relative world of change and its incessant movement.
	Plotinus tells us....

Separation, ....,is the condition of a soul no longer entering into body to lie at its mercy; it is to stand as a light, set in the midst of trouble, but unperturbed through all.

	This Buddhist Wisdom Tradition calls for an equal cooperation between this aspect of tranquility, known as mental stabilization or calm abiding (samatha), and analysis (vicara) or higher vision (vipasyana)....

6. Insightfulness Into The Nature Of The Absolute?

	It would appear therefore that the positive dimension of the via negativa is that aspect founded upon the experiential reception of insight whilst the negative dimension is that analytical aspect whose exercise induces receptivity to processes of insight. At this point it would seem natural to ask ourselves what is the nature of this insight and insightfulness into what? For the sake of a brief answer I will venture the reply that insightfulness is a religious and/or philosophic intuition into and through the phenomenal constitution of the world, an indepth vision into the reputed nature of reality, namely the absolute or Absolute. This reality is given many names, the One, the Supreme, the Father, the Perfection of Wisdom, Suchness, etc., etc. It is as if such a concept could be thought other than realized. It is as if through our persistence to name the unnamable by using an assembly of an infinity of religious names, albeit subjected to negative theological treatment, that we might eventually be able to pin down Reality and make it a part of this world when its essential character is to be the religious grounds of possibility for this world in the first place. In this light the via negativa can be seen to be very positive and fruitful in the desired consequences arising from the exercise of its analytical functioning. 

	Using our series of clues we can therefore put together the following picture. The negative aspect in the use of the via negativa in negative theology would appear to be essentially analytical in scope in the manner briefly outlined whilst the positive content, or consequences, of such an exercise are seen to reside in the creation of a religious-like insight into the natural-phenomenal world. The systematic and repetitive application of this analysis also possesses an affective element with the creation of a reinforced conviction and thence our faith in the validity of the results stemming from such insightful analysis. This type of position also places a heavy emphasis on the almost unconditional necessity for philosophy in order to perceive the need and path for the obtainment of insight and thence  some kind of religious salvation. At this point in time let us attend more closely to the nature of the negative theological process investigating its structure, function and motivation.

III. An Examination of the Negative Theological Process.

1. Using the Process/content Distinction.

	Using the artificial distinction between a process and the content of that process let us examine in more detail these two aspects in the light of what appears to be preconditionally necessary before the act of negative theological analysis can occur, its structure and function en process and the postconditional consequences that seem to arise from such a process.

2. The Preconditional Moment.

	A large number of preconditions appear to be necessary before a negative theological act of analysis can occur. Historically the following pre-conditions appear to be necessary for this type of analytical process.
	Firstly, an academic-like environment is necessary for the development of a positive theology for a negative theology is dependent on the content of the former in order to exercise its negational treatment.
	Secondly, a sense of philosophical history is necessary because it is through a critical self-criticism of a tradition in its internal and external interaction that the negative theologian senses the traditional inadequateness of a positive theology's type of philosophical position. In an attempt to transcend a sea of interminable and unproductive argument and counter-argument the negative theologian attempts to penetrate such a fog in order to understand why such intellectual effort is, as it stands, bound for the rocks of failure. In a realization that the sense of the absolute can not be thought in empirical-like terms of reference the way is left open for the exercise of the critical negational treatment entailed in the utilization of the via negativa. Under such treatment distinctions are taken to the limits of their empirical employment and therein made to return to the ground that underpins such a polarization of phenomenal significance. Because distinctions are dependent upon their correlatives and the ground of such semantic generation their meaningfulness can not exist in a pure vacuum and any attempt to take the empirical in this direction can only reduce the same to a hollow emptiness.
	Thirdly, a negative theological exercise in criticism must operate by virtue of its critique on a number of meta-like levels of meaning and this necessary feature essentially characterizes the structure of the via negativa. More precisely the via negativa uses the negational treatment of positive theological items that themselves are derived from a positive critical restructuring of the phenomenal world. Although a negative theologian criticizes the phenomenal world from an absolute point of view more often than not they will do this through the lens of a positive theology. In the Neoplatonic context by implication forms and the objects of their domain are under scrutiny. In the Buddhist context dharmas are subjected to the same type of attack but of a more explicit nature. For Plotinus any object infected by the taint of multiplicity is to that degree removed from the absolute presence of the One. Therefore however primary forms may be treated in a positive theology from the point of view of the One they cannot be primal.
	Fourthy, in order to exercise an analytical orientated consciousness a meditational-like state of reflection appears to be called for and this entails an element of mental stillness or stability of some kind. It would appear that the intensity of analysis necessitates a transcendental like detachment that is equally absorbed.
	Fifthly, an affective element of faith is also called for that strengthens motivation and which in turn is strengthened by the fruitful results of that analysis.

3. The Conditional Moment.

	In the midst of the negative theological process itself it would appear a systematic and repetitive exercise of the analytical state is called for. Such an exercise progress-ively carves out a new frame of reference in the way the world is to be seen. On finding no exceptions in the pursuit of such analysis ones's conviction finds itself moving from a provisional acceptance to an absolute acceptance and this is discovered in a direct intuition that the absolute nature of reality could not be otherwise and that by implication phenomenal reality must be essentially constituted in the same manner?
	Such analysis is intended to be both methodical and spontaneous. In its intuitive search for the bedrock of phenomenal existence the empirical way of seeing things is seen as limited and defective for this task of highlighting the nature of the absolute hence the usefulness in the adoption of negative forms of expression. In exercising this mental set a point is reached in time when the analyst, the person conducting this consequential analysis, finds that this way of perceiving naturally infiltrates their everyday way of seeing the world with, as a consequence, ongoing insightfulness into the phenomenality of that under examination.

4. The Postconditional Moment.

	The post-conditional moment correctly centers upon the consequences of analysis, namely, insightfulness. From insight flow new attitudes and perspectives for seeing the same things in the world but differently. Claims are made that insight is not only possible but also something of value. This wisdom or gnosis is something of value in its own right, helps us evaluate the phenomenal world, introduces us to the sense of the Absolute and the accompanying sense of religious salvation that such insight is promised to have in store for us. In essence it is claimed insight gives us a religious sense of value, a religious appreciation of ourselves just as we are in the world. Just as the phenomenal is grounded in and upon the absolute and each is but an expression of the other hence the phenomenal world must be a place wherein value can be discovered and revealed.
	In the Buddhist Wisdom Tradition we find....

Just so a Bodhisattva who has again lost the precious jewel of perfect wisdom, with a clear perception of the preciousness of perfect wisdom, and convinced that he has not definitely been parted from it, he should, with a thought that is not lacking in mental (work) work on perfect wisdom, and which is directed to the state of all-knowledge, search about .... All that time he should be one who is not lacking in mental activities associated with the acquisition of the precious jewel of the perfection of wisdom, one who is not lacking in mental activities associated with the acquisition of the great jewel of all-knowledge.

	In this quotation I am reminded of the biblical expression of the kingdom of heaven and its symbolic likeness to a jewel or treasure we should find, give up everything for and which of itself has immense value. Moreover the transcendent/immanent ambivalence of this rich and symbolically open concept parallels very closely the expression the perfection of wisdom. In an absolute- orientated philosophy there is, either implicitly or explicitly, an investment of the religious terminology with both senses of the immanent and transcendent, and that our discovery of this co-operate tension is a clue that an absolute frame of reference is in some form being referred to.
	Plotinus uses similar types of metaphor to publish the worth of the One and our coming to know it. In our recognition of this dimension to our being Plotinus refers to the process of such recognition as like the refinement of a valuable ore, e.g. gold. By implication the attendant concept of purification, above and beyond the mere performance of some traditional ritual process, is given much emphasis. This structural and functional feature is isomorphically present in both traditions and it appears the same type of motivation is behind the formulation of either.
	At this point let me briefly allude to the strong element of devotional practice that appears to accompany this type of philosophy.
	Absolute philosophy on a first count would seem to have little to do with devotional religious practice. The idea of the Absolute, in its transcendence of those finite limitations that bind phenomenal existences, would seem to place it in a realm of the infinite. Being so disposed it would seem, assuming that the Absolute can be treated as being of the divine in some form or other, that it would be hardly predisposed to encounter finite parts of its unlimited panorama. However the truth of the matter is that devotion is a personal encounter with the numinous from the point of view of the individual. Logically speaking the Absolute could be both deaf and blind to any practice of devotion directed towards it for the phenomenon of devotionalism correctly has its primary roots grounded in the needs and drives of the individual and it is there that we must search for reasons why this period in time sees the trend for the emergence and greater expression of more personalized devotional forms of practice en masse. This period in time saw the almost simultaneous development of the Buddha image and the Christ figure.	A number of solutions could be proposed to account for this historical phenomenon. I shall here add two solutions to this list.
	Firstly, this period in time saw the development of less rigid forms of urban development. With increasing educational standards of some of the sectors of the urban population and the freeing of the urban dweller from vast theocratically-orientated elites, increased trade created a climate where personal choice in religious belief became tolerated in reaction to the non-personal uniform empty ritualism of the state or empire. Along with increased trade and the spread of the relatively novel idea of the need for personal salvation such ideas were further promoted through the formation and enlargement of already pre-established non-conformist monastic-like communities.
	A second solution as an explanation to account for the world wide spread of this phenomenon might well be found in the very psychic environment that also promoted the development of negative theology. Indeed it might be seen that positive theology had reached a point of impasse and that the pluralism of opinion, in contrast to the uniformity of official religious expression at the level of the state, by its own sheer wealth of form created a sense of religious alienation, anomaly, confusion along with an aura of non-authoritative anarchy. With cults being a dime a dozen, so to speak, in the midst of such confusion would naturally arise a desire for some form of authoritative critical systematization and transcendence of this conflicting pluralism. Indeed it would stand to reason that those cults that promoted some form of authority within their organization, both theoretical and practical, would be the type of religious phenomena to inherit vast segments of these disenchanted urbanized communities.
	What negative theology does psychologically is also reflected on a social level. With increased critical reflection the obvious all too human limitations of positive theology are criticized. The positive theological tradition itself now becomes the object of our concern in reflection, not religious realities per se, as a consequence a transcendental dimension of religious speculation is entered into along with a recognition of the sense of the absolute. This dimension recognizes that empirical categories that were utilized in positive theological thought cannot correctly be applied to the sense of the absolute as the latter is the ground for empirical reality and not an empirical reality per se. Such a critical perspective is not analytically fragmenting but synthetic, synthesizing a unity upon the integrated sense of the transcendental ground of the absolute or Absolute. This transcendental ground allowing for a unity and authority on one hand and on the other a plurality of phenomenal expression. At the same time these two modes are equated with each other from the transcendental-absolute point of view. As phenomenal reality is grounded in and upon the absolute hence its absolutivity from the point of view of the absolute. A looking towards the relative from the absolute point of view realizes an emanational-orientated philosophy whilst on the other hand the absolute from the relative point of view realizes a devotional perspective. 
	The recognition and development of a transcendental absolute dimension in philosophical thought calls for an equal transcendence of both ontological and epistemological perspectives (and an equivalence between the immanent and the transcendent). Philosophies of difference, I suspect, operate in one or other of these two primary modalities of philosophical thought whereas a philosophy of sameness appears to operate with an implicit or explicit sense of both the transcendental and the absolute. Difference is still accountable in a philosophy of sameness only its absolute distinctiveness dissolves in the recognition that the transcendental sense of the absolute is both transcendent and immanent to that which is treated as relatively different or distinct. Furthermore a philosophy of sameness promotes a dialectical openness to phenomena, letting the world be seen through an infinite number of perspectives rather than through one privileged perspective centered in a short-sighted one-sighted vision of the logical.
	In Buddhist philosophy this equation between the ontological and the epistemological is realized through a realization that emptiness, the lack of inherent self-existence, realizes a common identity in both the realm of the individual considered mentally as either an apparent ego or self (or in accordance with the four skandhas of feelings, perceptions, impulses and concsiousness) or when considered materially as material form.
	In Plotinus this same equation is recognized. In the following quotation Plotinus equates both Being and Intellectual-Principle....

-by these methods one becomes, to self and all else, at once seer and seen; identical with Being and Intellectual-Principle and the entire living all, we no longer see the Supreme as an external; we are near now, the next is That and it is close at hand, radiant above the Intellectual.

	By these methods we must include negative theological techniques, those analytical processes of reflection that critically attempt to de-describe positive theological description and synthesize a transcendental-religious sense of the absolute as an Absolute. Moreover, such an approach, although reinforcing a position of primacy for philosophy, tries to overcome propositional thinking and its burial in the phenomenal territory of predication. Both of these traditions claim that conducted properly and taken to their fullest extent the negative theological use of the via negativa not only allows us to intellectually appreciate the sense of the absolute but also experience it experientially.

IV. Conclusion.

	In conclusion I would like to state that negative theology is far from being a negative exercise in negative criticism and has no connection whatsoever with nihilistic forms of philosophy. Indeed it has, and states, much that is very positive in tone. As this paper has tried to show there is a very close relationship between negative and positive dimensions in the use of the via negativa, that the negative dimension is basically analytical in the way we have defined it and that the positive dimension is an experiential one centered on insight, or more correctly, the creation of insightfuless. In its exercise negative theology tries to open up a transcendental dimension whereby an appreciation of the sense of the absolute passes from an intellectual one to a direct experience of the same. As an assistant in this process philosophy came to reclaim a primary role in the salvation of the individual, giving birth to the need for salvation, acting as a necessary ingredient for its obtainment even though in the final stages of this process it would be dispensed with like some strange midwife that disappears at the very moment that witnesses the ongoing delivery of full and direct insightfulness.